Abstract

We discuss I. M. Gelfand’s project of rebuilding the representation theory of semisimple Lie groups on the basis of integral geometry. The basic examples are related to harmonic analysis and the horospherical transform on symmetric manifolds. Specifically, we consider the inversion of this transform on Riemannian symmetric manifolds of noncompact type. In the known explicit inversion formulas, the nonlocal part essentially depends on the type of the root system. We suggest a universal modification of this operator.